Biden to head to Tampa next week

Vice President Joseph R. Biden will head to Tampa, Fla., early next week to provide a little Democratic counter-programming at the massive Republican confab.

Mr. Biden plans to be in Florida, including stops in Tampa and other cities, Monday and Tuesday of next week, the Obama campaign announced Tuesday.

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“Additional details on the vice president’s trip” will be forthcoming, the campaign said in a brief statement confirming earlier reports in The Washington Post and on the Drudge Report.

The campaign’s willingness to deploy Mr. Biden to the heart of Republican territory after the vice president made a series of gaffes last week is proof that the Obama campaign still regards Mr. Biden as an asset whose irrepressible energy and infectious enthusiasm — features that fuel the proneness to gaffes — helps him connect with voters.

During a stop in Danville, Va., last week, Mr. Biden drew a flood of criticism by telling a majority-black audience that Mitt Romney would “put them back in chains.” The vice president has spent this week campaigning in the Democratic strongholds of Rochester, N.Y.; Minneapolis; and Detroit after returning to Washington and spending the weekend at his Delaware home